Topic: Dennis Morris

Dennis Morris is a British photographer best known for his images of Bob Marley and the Sex Pistols. In 1979, he created the logo for the band Public Image Limited (P.I.L) and the legendary and innovative Metal Box album packaging. He then became Art Director of Island Records and designed album covers for the likes of Linton Kwesi Johnson, Marianne Faithfull (Broken English) and Bob Marley. Mid- 1979, he replaced Don Letts as vocalist of Basement 5, the avant-garde punk rock reggae band. He created their logo, image, photography and graphics and successfully gained a recording contract with Island Records; their albums ("Basement 5 - 1965 to 1080" and "Basement in Dub") were produced by Martin Hannett. He has held exhibitions worldwide (Sydney Opera House, Laforet Museum Tokyo, Contact Toronto and in galleries in London, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Stuttgart ...). In June 2005, the Spectrum London gallery had a show of photographs by Morris documenting the daily lives, ceremonies and rituals of the Mowanjum Australian Aborigine community. The gallery was blessed by Aboriginal tribe leader, Francis Firebrace, wearing body paint and tribal dress. He was commissioned to show a new body of work at the Today Art Museum in Beijing in 2008 to coincide with the Olympic Cultural programme. A large installation of his punk images (part of the “I am a cliché, Echoes of the Punk Aesthetic” exhibition curated by Emma Lavigne) will be shown at the 41st Rencontres d’Arles (France) during the summer of 2010. His photographs have become highly collectable, including one body of work (“Southall – a home from home”) bought by English Heritage, on permanent display at the “ Gunnersbury Park Museum ” in London. “Growing Up Black” a collection of his photographs from the Black community in Hackney is also part of the permanent collection of the Hackney Museum (London). His photographs have appeared in numerous prestigious publications including: Rolling Stone, Time, People magazine, V magazine, GQ, I-D, Vogue and the Sunday Times, amongst others. His work has been used in books such as:” Lipstick Traces”, a secret history of the 20th century by Marcus Griel, published by Harvard University Press; “Century”, by Bruce Bernard, published by Phaidon Press; “Punk” by Steven Colgrave and Chris Sullivan; “Rolling Stone”, The complete covers 1967-1997. He has been the subject of various documentaries and TV programmes in the UK and America; His photographs have been used by televisions around the world.